Few musicians have written as many beautiful and lasting pieces of music as the great composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. He wrote thousands of vocal, keyboard, and instrumental compositions. Bach spent his entire life in Germany and lived during the musical period called the Baroque Era (1650 -1750).
Bach was born into a musical family in Eisenach, Germany, on March 31, 1685. Many members of Bach’s family were professional musicians, including his father, who was the director of the town musicians. Three of Bach’s sons also became famous musicians and composers. Because there were so many Bachs who were musicians, people of that time sometimes referred to a musician as a “Bach”.
As a child, Bach studied organ with his uncle and probably violin and music theory with his father. At age 15, Bach left home for Luneberg where he attended school, studied the organ, and became a paid singer in a church choir. Bach took his first job as a church organist at the age of 18. During this time, he took time off from his church job because he wanted to hear the great organist Buxtehude. Story has it that Bach walked 250 miles to Lubeck and stayed for four months.
Bach later became as a court organist and the concertmaster of the orchestra for the Duke of Weimar. A concertmaster is a musician who is the leading violin player and the assistant conductor of an orchestra. During his nine years there, he became a famous organ virtuoso (someone who becomes greatly skilled at music) and wrote many of his greatest organ works. Bach had problems getting along with the Duke and eventually applied for a different job. When Bach finally left, the Duke was so angry that he had Bach put in jail for nearly a month. His next job was in Cothen working for Prince Leopold. Here Bach wrote most of his chamber music (music for small groups of instruments). He also wrote solo pieces for harpsichord or clavichord (keyboard instruments that existed before the piano). A few famous examples are 15 Two-part Inventions, 15 Three- part Sinfonias, and the two books of the Well-Tempered Clavier. Keyboard suites (pieces made up of different dances in the same key) were also composed during this time. 4
In 1706 Bach married his second cousin Maria Barbara Bach. They had seven children. Two children from this marriage become famous musicians: Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Maria died after a short illness in 1720, leaving him with the children. In 1721, Bach married his second wife, Anna Magdalena. They had thirteen more children during their long marriage. The Bach family collected music into three notebooks that they used to teach the children: the Clavier Book for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and two musical notebooks for Anna Magdalena. The famous Minuet in G is part of the Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook. At the age of 38, Bach took a new job in the city of Leipzig. He taught singing and Latin to the boys at the St. Thomas School and provided music for the town’s four churches. While in Leipzig Bach composed his greatest religious music, including many cantatas (religious vocal pieces). He sometimes write a whole cantata in one a week! His large choral works, the St. John and St. Matthew Passions, the Magnificat and the Mass in B Minor, were also written. Bach continued to compose and perform for many years until he died on July 28, 1750, at the age of 65.
Composer of the Year 2014: W. A. Mozart
COMING!
Composer of the Year 2013
Robert Vandall is a contemporary composer, teacher, choir director, performer, and workshop leader who currently lives with his wife Karen in beautiful farm country near New Philadelphia, Ohio. He was born on February 15, 1944 in Akron, Ohio where he lived throughout his childhood. Vandall developed his interest in music early in life and has been playing piano for 60 years. He family surrounded him with music, and he fondly recalls pianist relatives, gospel music, and family singing. They listened to classical, pop, gospel, and jazz on both records and the radio. Robert reports having loved music classes in elementary school, singing in the children’s choir, and attending Children’s Concerts sponsored by the Cleveland Orchestra. By the age of eight, he was begging for piano lessons.
He was a student who not only practiced daily but also sight-read anything he could find. He sailed through his lesson books and moved on to Clementi, Liszt, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff. In high school, he studied with Arthur Reginald of Akron University, whose rigorous demands helped Vandall win a scholarship to Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music in Berea, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance. Afterwards, he taught college music in Illinois and Missouri, and completed a master degree at the University of Illinois where he studied piano, music theory, choral conducting, and pedagogy. Vandall has since given numerous workshops for teachers and directed the Ohio All-State Piano Ensembles.
Since 1977, Robert and his wife have been teaching in their own studio in New Philadelphia. The piano remains his favorite instrument because it has “melody, harmony, rhythm, textures and even colors (if one listens intently).” However, he loves listening to music from all periods and continually wonders at the genius of the great composers— Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, the Impressionists, Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, John Adams-- and the jazz of Waller and Tatum. He has remained active with church music, gardening, biking, reading Westerns, and attending his grandchildren’s events. Much of his time, however, is devoted to composing piano music for Alfred Publishing Company.
Composers of the Year 2012
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847) Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn were brother and sister musicians, composers, and artists who were born in Hamburg, Germany but moved to Berlin, Germany in 1811 due to the threat of war. The children came from a wealthy family that valued a good education for both boys and girls. This was unusual because, at the time, few parents believed that their daughters needed more than a basic education. Their father taught them mathematics and French while they learned German, literature, and fine arts, including piano, from their mother. Later, both children studied music theory, painting, violin, and language with tutors. Although they had a strict life style, they had a fairly happy childhood. They studied six days a week; but, on Sundays, they met famous writers, musicians, and philosophers at parties hosted in their own recital hall. Fanny and Felix sometimes performed for the guests. In time, they became important composers of the Romantic Period.
Fanny Mendelssohn surprised her father by memorizing the entire Well-Tempered Clavier by J.S. Bach at the age of 13. By 14, Fanny had composed a birthday song for her father, but it was not until years later that two of her lieder (songs) were actually published. Most of her works were listed under her brother’s name because publishing wasn’t considered lady-like at the time. After her mother’s death, Fanny hosted the family concerts, where she was able to perform for guests, as opportunities for a woman to perform in public were extremely limited. Fanny married Wilhelm Hensel, an artist, at the age of 24. He appreciated her music and, unlike her father and brother, encouraged her to submit some of her works to a publisher, who published them under her own name. One of the exciting points of her life occurred in 1839 when she spent some time in Italy. There, she introduced the works of J.S. Bach to a friend and composer, Charles Gounod, and found inspiration for her famous piano work Abschied von Rome (“Farewell to Rome”). Fanny composed more than 400 pieces. Some of her major compositions include a collection of piano pieces Das Jahr (“TheYear”) and Notturno in G Minor for piano; Piano Quartet in A-Flat Major (chamber music); and Job (cantata). Fanny was a huge supporter of her brother’s music, and Felix relied on her as a critic. In return, her brother admitted that the piece he performed for Queen Victoria of England was her composition. Fanny died of a stroke at the age of 41 while rehearsing one of her brother’s compositions for a family Sunday concert.
Felix Mendelssohn, also known as Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, has been better known than his sister over the years. At the age of twenty, Felix began a concert tour of Europe, playing the piano and conducting orchestras. He was able to meet many famous and respected musicians such as Berlioz, Schumann, Liszt, and Thompson, and developed a wider circle of friends in the poets and philosophers he met socially. His travel inspired him to write music with an international flavor such as his Italian and Scottish Symphonies. His favorite country was England where people, including Queen Victoria and her husband Albert, were fascinated by the way he played the piano, and he loved the English back. While there, he composed Elijah, his best-known oratorio, and his very popular Violin Concerto in E Minor Opus 64. Mendelssohn developed a strong appreciation for the work of J. S. Bach when he studied with Zleter, the custodian of the Bach Music Library. Felix then organized and conducted a performance of Bach’s choral work, St. Matthew Passion—the first in 100 years. He is credited with beginning a Bach revival. By the time he was 26, he was made a conductor of an orchestra in Germany, and, two years later, he married Cecile Jeanrenaud. They had five children. Felix had many opportunities in his life. King Wilhelm IV of Bavaria, recognizing his talent, proposed that he assume the role of Director of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. He took the job, but the Academy was never built. So, he returned to Leipzig as guest conductor of the orchestra. Later, Bernhard von Lindenau appointed him Director of a musical conservatory, a successful move for Felix. His life was devoted to music education in Germany where he continued to compose, teach, and conduct. He was supported by commissions from several European orchestras and worked with dedication on his pieces, whether large or small. In his mid-thirties, Mendelssohn’s schedule was hectic with touring, teaching, and composing. He died at the age of 38, six months after his beloved sister, Fanny, and some believe that the cause was overwork and deep grieving at his sister’s death. At the time, friends remembered Felix as someone full of charm, who enjoyed social events and many interests outside of music, especially painting. Today, we remember him for some of his works such as the Overture from a Midsummer Night’s Dream (orchestral piece known as the Wedding March), Six Songs for Voice and Piano, and Songs without Words (piano pieces that were originally given as birthday gifts in illustrated cards). His music is still popular because of his lively melodies and the images created in his some of his easier pieces (Hunting Song, Spring Song).
Composer of the Year 2015: J.S. Bach
Beginner Bio:Few musicians have written as many beautiful and lasting pieces of music as the great composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. He wrote thousands of vocal, keyboard, and instrumental compositions. Bach spent his entire life in Germany and lived during the musical period called the Baroque Era (1650 -1750).
Bach was born into a musical family in Eisenach, Germany, on March 31, 1685. Many members of Bach’s family were professional musicians, including his father, who was the director of the town musicians. Three of Bach’s sons also became famous musicians and composers. Because there were so many Bachs who were musicians, people of that time sometimes referred to a musician as a “Bach”.
As a child, Bach studied organ with his uncle and probably violin and music theory with his father. At age 15, Bach left home for Luneberg where he attended school, studied the organ, and became a paid singer in a church choir.
Bach took his first job as a church organist at the age of 18. During this time, he took time off from his church job because he wanted to hear the great organist Buxtehude. Story has it that Bach walked 250 miles to Lubeck and stayed for four months.
Bach later became as a court organist and the concertmaster of the orchestra for the Duke of Weimar. A concertmaster is a musician who is the leading violin player and the assistant conductor of an orchestra. During his nine years there, he became a famous organ virtuoso (someone who becomes greatly skilled at music) and wrote many of his greatest organ works. Bach had problems getting along with the Duke and eventually applied for a different job. When Bach finally left, the Duke was so angry that he had Bach put in jail for nearly a month.
His next job was in Cothen working for Prince Leopold. Here Bach wrote most of his chamber music (music for small groups of instruments). He also wrote solo pieces for harpsichord or clavichord (keyboard instruments that existed before the piano). A few famous examples are 15 Two-part Inventions, 15 Three- part Sinfonias, and the two books of the Well-Tempered Clavier. Keyboard suites (pieces made up of different dances in the same key) were also composed during this time.
4
In 1706 Bach married his second cousin Maria Barbara Bach. They had seven children. Two children from this marriage become famous musicians: Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Maria died after a short illness in 1720, leaving him with the children. In 1721, Bach married his second wife, Anna Magdalena. They had thirteen more children during their long marriage. The Bach family collected music into three notebooks that they used to teach the children: the Clavier Book for Wilhelm Friedemann Bach and two musical notebooks for Anna Magdalena. The famous Minuet in G is part of the Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook.
At the age of 38, Bach took a new job in the city of Leipzig. He taught singing and Latin to the boys at the St. Thomas School and provided music for the town’s four churches. While in Leipzig Bach composed his greatest religious music, including many cantatas (religious vocal pieces). He sometimes write a whole cantata in one a week! His large choral works, the St. John and St. Matthew Passions, the Magnificat and the Mass in B Minor, were also written. Bach continued to compose and perform for many years until he died on July 28, 1750, at the age of 65.
Composer of the Year 2014: W. A. Mozart
COMING!Composer of the Year 2013
Robert Vandall is a contemporary composer, teacher, choir director, performer, and workshop leader who currently lives with his wife Karen in beautiful farm country near New Philadelphia, Ohio. He was born on February 15, 1944 in Akron, Ohio where he lived throughout his childhood. Vandall developed his interest in music early in life and has been playing piano for 60 years. He family surrounded him with music, and he fondly recalls pianist relatives, gospel music, and family singing. They listened to classical, pop, gospel, and jazz on both records and the radio. Robert reports having loved music classes in elementary school, singing in the children’s choir, and attending Children’s Concerts sponsored by the Cleveland Orchestra. By the age of eight, he was begging for piano lessons.
He was a student who not only practiced daily but also sight-read anything he could find. He sailed through his lesson books and moved on to Clementi, Liszt, Debussy, and Rachmaninoff. In high school, he studied with Arthur Reginald of Akron University, whose rigorous demands helped Vandall win a scholarship to Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music in Berea, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance. Afterwards, he taught college music in Illinois and Missouri, and completed a master degree at the University of Illinois where he studied piano, music theory, choral conducting, and pedagogy. Vandall has since given numerous workshops for teachers and directed the Ohio All-State Piano Ensembles.
Since 1977, Robert and his wife have been teaching in their own studio in New Philadelphia. The piano remains his favorite instrument because it has “melody, harmony, rhythm, textures and even colors (if one listens intently).” However, he loves listening to music from all periods and continually wonders at the genius of the great composers— Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, the Impressionists, Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, John Adams-- and the jazz of Waller and Tatum. He has remained active with church music, gardening, biking, reading Westerns, and attending his grandchildren’s events. Much of his time, however, is devoted to composing piano music for Alfred Publishing Company.
Composers of the Year 2012
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel (1805-1847)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn were brother and sister musicians, composers, and artists who were born in Hamburg, Germany but moved to Berlin, Germany in 1811 due to the threat of war. The children came from a wealthy family that valued a good education for both boys and girls. This was unusual because, at the time, few parents believed that their daughters needed more than a basic education. Their father taught them mathematics and French while they learned German, literature, and fine arts, including piano, from their mother. Later, both children studied music theory, painting, violin, and language with tutors. Although they had a strict life style, they had a fairly happy childhood. They studied six days a week; but, on Sundays, they met famous writers, musicians, and philosophers at parties hosted in their own recital hall. Fanny and Felix sometimes performed for the guests. In time, they became important composers of the Romantic Period.
Fanny Mendelssohn surprised her father by memorizing the entire Well-Tempered Clavier by J.S. Bach at the age of 13. By 14, Fanny had composed a birthday song for her father, but it was not until years later that two of her lieder (songs) were actually published. Most of her works were listed under her brother’s name because publishing wasn’t considered lady-like at the time. After her mother’s death, Fanny hosted the family concerts, where she was able to perform for guests, as opportunities for a woman to perform in public were extremely limited.
Fanny married Wilhelm Hensel, an artist, at the age of 24. He appreciated her music and, unlike her father and brother, encouraged her to submit some of her works to a publisher, who published them under her own name. One of the exciting points of her life occurred in 1839 when she spent some time in Italy. There, she introduced the works of J.S. Bach to a friend and composer, Charles Gounod, and found inspiration for her famous piano work Abschied von Rome (“Farewell to Rome”). Fanny composed more than 400 pieces. Some of her major compositions include a collection of piano pieces Das Jahr (“TheYear”) and Notturno in G Minor for piano; Piano Quartet in A-Flat Major (chamber music); and Job (cantata).
Fanny was a huge supporter of her brother’s music, and Felix relied on her as a critic. In return, her brother admitted that the piece he performed for Queen Victoria of England was her composition. Fanny died of a stroke at the age of 41 while rehearsing one of her brother’s compositions for a family Sunday concert.
Felix Mendelssohn, also known as Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, has been better known than his sister over the years. At the age of twenty, Felix began a concert tour of Europe, playing the piano and conducting orchestras. He was able to meet many famous and respected musicians such as Berlioz, Schumann, Liszt, and Thompson, and developed a wider circle of friends in the poets and philosophers he met socially. His travel inspired him to write music with an international flavor such as his Italian and Scottish Symphonies. His favorite country was England where people, including Queen Victoria and her husband Albert, were fascinated by the way he played the piano, and he loved the English back. While there, he composed Elijah, his best-known oratorio, and his very popular Violin Concerto in E Minor Opus 64.
Mendelssohn developed a strong appreciation for the work of J. S. Bach when he studied with Zleter, the custodian of the Bach Music Library. Felix then organized and conducted a performance of Bach’s choral work, St. Matthew Passion—the first in 100 years. He is credited with beginning a Bach revival.
By the time he was 26, he was made a conductor of an orchestra in Germany, and, two years later, he married Cecile Jeanrenaud. They had five children. Felix had many opportunities in his life. King Wilhelm IV of Bavaria, recognizing his talent, proposed that he assume the role of Director of the Academy of Arts in Berlin. He took the job, but the Academy was never built. So, he returned to Leipzig as guest conductor of the orchestra. Later, Bernhard von Lindenau appointed him Director of a musical conservatory, a successful move for Felix. His life was devoted to music education in Germany where he continued to compose, teach, and conduct. He was supported by commissions from several European orchestras and worked with dedication on his pieces, whether large or small.
In his mid-thirties, Mendelssohn’s schedule was hectic with touring, teaching, and composing. He died at the age of 38, six months after his beloved sister, Fanny, and some believe that the cause was overwork and deep grieving at his sister’s death.
At the time, friends remembered Felix as someone full of charm, who enjoyed social events and many interests outside of music, especially painting. Today, we remember him for some of his works such as the Overture from a Midsummer Night’s Dream (orchestral piece known as the Wedding March), Six Songs for Voice and Piano, and Songs without Words (piano pieces that were originally given as birthday gifts in illustrated cards). His music is still popular because of his lively melodies and the images created in his some of his easier pieces (Hunting Song, Spring Song).